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Edmund Brandt
(disputed)|Row 5 title = Former Affiliations:|Row 5 info = |Row 6 title = Relatives:|Row 6 info = Alten Brandt (mother, deceased) Sakura Brandt (mother, deceased) Saoirse Ó’Faoláin (wife, deceased) Triana Brandt (daughter)|Row 7 title = Status|Row 7 info = |image =EdmundtheGuard.jpg |caption =Kingsguard }} Sir Edmund Brandt's name would never go down in history, but he stood as a testament to the might and majesty of Lordaeron since the moment he could draw a sword. He was knighted shortly before the Second War, and he rode alongside Anduin Lothar during much of the campaign as a cavalryman. His deeds were always overshadowed by more prominent knights such as Turalyon and Uther, and as such he was destined to fade into obscurity after the War rather than follow his fellow knights into the Order of the Silver Hand. He was appointed as a Kingsguard after the deaths of many of Terenas's retainers during the Battle for Lordaeron, and he remained by Terenas's side for many years. Edmund, however, would not live to see his king die; he was struck down by the Plague mere days earlier. Throughout unlife, it is said he was haunted by his inability to protect his king in the hour of his most dire need, and that inability drove him to redeem himself in battle alongside the Last Legion of Lordaeron. The manner of his death is unknown, but his armor was found by Grand Alliance forces during the Siege of the Undercity, bloodied with aged ichor, suggesting he had died many years prior. Description Undeath has stolen this man's once-handsome features and his pride, but he still carries himself with the dignity of a knight, as befits a Kingsguard of Lordaeron. Edmund was a tall man, standing at 6'2", with a powerful muscular build, a result of countless hours of practice with halberd, pike, and greatsword, though death now threatened his proud shoulders with a slight hunch. His high cheekbones and stately features would have given him an almost elven handsomeness in life, but the Plague left his face rotted, pocked, and ashen. As a youth he let his raven hair grow long down to his shoulders, but as a man he kept it cropped short, and in death it grew no more. Edmund always stood out amongst the Last Legion, equipped not with the cobbled trappings of militia or the tarnished iron plate and chain of Sabrine's household guard but the full platemail of a knight of Lordaeron, still polished and maintained even in death. His pallid face hides behind the T-shaped visor of his helm, his shoulders protected by heavy pauldrons. A long royal blue cloak hangs from his shoulders, and a simple blue tabard covers his armored chest. He walks with the heavy clanking of a warrior, powerful in life, tireless in undeath. History Edmund's early history is known primarily through a brief biography assembled upon his appointment to the Kingsguard. His parents are recorded as Alten and Sakura Brandt, as is the godfather for whom he is named, a minor landowner and local horse breeder in Vandermar Village. The Brandt family seem to have been nothing more than tenant farmers on the elder Edmund's land, but whether it sprung from a prior friendship or simply generosity on the landowner's part, the younger Edmund was given a simple education, which is certainly more than either of his parents could claim. Edmund's namesake also allowed him access to his horses, an activity that developed in him a lifelong skill and love for equestrianism. Regardless of his meagre education, Edmund was slated for little more than tenant farming due to his birth. The prospect of such a life, however, seemed to hold little appeal for the young man. At the age of fourteen, he began working as a runner for a local merchant; by age sixteen, he had exchanged his runner's satchel for a well-worn iron blade, acting as a mercenary guard for the merchant on his travels. Given the escalating situation in the South due to the arrival of the Orcish Horde, Edmund was relatively well-compensated for his efforts, and by the age of eighteen he had purchased a horse from his namesake, as well as some light arms of his own. By this point, by his own reckoning, he was a knight-errant, eagerly searching the land for fame and glory. Two years later Lordaeron had entered the Second War, and Edmund, now a twenty-year-old aspiring knight-errant, had that opportunity. Edmund enlisted in the Lordaeronian Royal Army, and as early casualties against the Horde skyrocketed, he found himself in the Army's cavalry line, outfitted in the King's colours, with a suit of mail and a lance to match. Well-built, ambitious, and with a natural horseman's affinity for the saddle, Edmund kept pace with the nobleborn knights of the capital in battle, ultimately catching the eye of Knight-Lieutenant Mendhel Graves. Graves soon took the man on as a squire, though Graves was himself only a few years older than Edmund at the time. Graves undertook the task of supplementing Edmund's natural abilities and self-trained swordsmanship with the skills of a knight, and as cavalry numbers continued to dwindle in southern engagements, Edmund was knighted in the field with only a year of formal squiring. Little was expected of this new generation of knights, that much was clear; with less-than-notable backgrounds, haphazard training, and loyalties bought by coin and fame rather than honor, Lordaeronian commanders found these lesser knights most useful as vanguard forces, allowing more battle-hardened knights to serve as the shock troops. Few of Edmund's comrades survived long in these battles, but by the grace of the Light, or perhaps simply sheer dumb luck, Edmund stood among the survivors time after time. By the time of Alterac's subjugation, Edmund was a Knight-Lieutenant, responsible for leading these lesser knights into battle. Edmund saw action in this capacity across Lordaeron, Stromgarde, and finally the Southlands, riding to war alongside such distinguished heroes as Uther the Lightbringer, Turalyon, and Anduin Lothar. He rode in the vanguard at the Battle of Blackrock Spire, close enough to see the blow that ended Lothar's life. His biography is quite exhaustive in the naming of the foes he slew before the Spire; if he slew half the number of Orcs he claims to have, he proved himself quite the warrior that day. The battle resulted in a broken leg and a broken wrist for the young Knight-Lieutenant, neither enough to permanently cripple him by any means, but enough to make him a poor choice for the expedition beyond the Dark Portal. After a few months of recovery with the survivors of Stormwind, Edmund was recalled to Lordaeron, where he was given the honor of relieving one of the Kingsguard who fell in Terenas's defense during the Horde's siege of the capital. It was during this time that Edmund was married in a small, private ceremony at Ambermill to a young Gilnean peasant named Saoirse Ó’Faoláin. The records of this event are scarce, but it seems not only was there nothing by means of courting, and Saoirse already had given birth to a daughter. This leaves little question that Saoirse and Edmund had had a previous affair, likely shortly prior to his deployment to the Southlands. Saoirse, as well as their infant daughter Triana, accompanied Edmund to the capital for his induction into the Kingsguard. Kingsguard Sir Edmund Brandt was never a household name the way some of his former comrades had been, and his lack of church education effectively prohibited the former Knight-Lieutenant from joining the newly-formed Order of the Silver Hand. However, given Lordaeron's massive casualties, including amongst the Kingsguard, the veteran knight proved a perfect recruit for Terenas's personal retinue - battle-hardened yet not a face needed on the front lines for morale, with a new wife and young child to care for. The family was gifted a small homestead in the inner city and given access to the upper echelons of Lordaeronian society; anywhere the King walked, Edmund would follow. This arrangement also assisted the family in securing a proper church education for their daughter. Brandt's time in service to King Terenas was relatively uneventful. With the threat of the Horde contained, Lordaeron entered a period of relative stability and peace that lasted over a decade. Saoirse and Edmund's daughter Triana showed great aptitude in her studies, and with the help of Edmund's burgeoning political connections, she found placement as a novitiate in the Tirisfal Monastery. As far as can be ascertained, neither Edmund nor Saoirse would ever again see his daughter after her initiation into the Church. Edmund remained by Terenas's side until a week before Arthas's return to the capital, at which point the early stages of the Plague became apparent and Edmund was ordered into quarantine. He succumbed two days before Terenas's own death, with his wife by his bedside. Given the deteriorating situation with the Plague, no runners could be sent to inform Triana of her father's taking ill or passing, which likely saved her life. Undeath As with all victims of the Plague, Edmund would soon return in the cursed grip of undeath. His early activities were near impossible to track, but wherever the Scourge made use of his rotting corpse, he ultimately had made his way to Silverpine by 24 LC, at which point he joined the retinue of former Lordaeronian noblewoman Sabrine Theodora Mallory. He served with Sabrine ostensibly until his second death; however, as of yet the exact time and cause of Edmund's death have yet to be determined. It is likely he did not survive long past 26 or 27 LC.Category:Characters Category:Lordaeronian Category:Human Category:Knights Category:Undead Category:Lyuudri